𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔰 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔡

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THE EARLY MORNING SUN KISSED MILA'S FACE. She sat outside, under a tree. She faced the black lake, her eyes closed as her head leaned back up against the tree. She had decided to skip breakfast, last night she had snuck into the kitchens to leave food for her stash, and might've taken a bit extra to eat in the moment, leaving her tired and full.

She opened her eyes when she felt a figure next to her, Ida. She watched her groan as she sat down, detangling her hair that got caught on the bark of the tree, along with spitting some out of her mouth. Ida put her head on Mila's shoulder, both of them closed their eyes. "Morning," Ida yawned.

"Morning."

Mila bundled herself up tighter in her robe, it was quite a chilly morning, as she breathed out she could almost see her breath. "What are you doing here?" Mila asked, "Oh, well, I thought you'd be out here so, I came to find you." The two had decided they should probably wake themselves up, Mila stretched out her legs in front of her before bringing her knees back to her chest. "It's not so weird that I'm out here," Ida stated, Mila hummed in response, "It quite actually is, I would've thought you sit in the Great Hall doing, you know."

"What?"

"You know," Mila looked to her friend.

"I actually don't know, please, enlighten me since I seem to be such a bad friend that I wouldn't be out here with you!"

Mila chuckled and smiled to herself at the girl's internal denial, "That you'd be drooling all over for Daphne Clemons!" she teased, her head dancing along her shoulders. Ida rolled her eyes, a annoyed look plastered on her fact as she folded her arms sinking into her spot, "No I wouldn't, and I don't," she huffed, Mila was terrible at concealing her giggles, and got met with a hit in her arm. Mila scoffed before she began poking Iddy's stomach, "Don't think I catch you staring at her all the time!"

"I do not!" Ida was struggling at gripping M's hands away, "Iddy, your eyes are glued to the girl!" What a little poking fun was had turned into a bit of a baby fight. "What if I didn't have eyes!" "I'm looking at them right now!"
"Yeah but if I didn't you couldn't say that I glue my eyes to her!"
"Are you basically admitting you stare at your girlfriend so much you need an excuse me not to say so?"
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"But you admit you have a giant crush on her?" Ida ended up spitting in Mila's face before a voice rung out behind them.

"Hi Ida!"

Mila's features now had a giant smirk all over it as she slowly turned her head to see behind the tree. "Good morning, Daphne!" Mila greeted, whipping her head back around to meet Ida's face, her face was now a deep red, Mila couldn't tell if it was her blushing or her anger, either way she looked like she was about to explode, her eyes grew wide before she smiled at Daphne, "Hullo Daphne!" the two smiled at each other, Mila cleared her throat, slowly getting up from her spot.

As badly as Ida wanted to grab Mila and pulled her back down, she was frozen in embarrassment. "I'm going to catch the last round of breakfast, Iddy can surely keep you company while I'm away! I'll get going!" she saw Ida mouth the words 'Fuck you' as she waved and sprinted off towards the castle, giggling to herself, not sorry at all.

Mila's leg bounced under the desk, today was when Professor McGonagall was to hand back their essays, she was completely out of it until the Professor finally stopped by at her desk, placing the parchments on her table, "Very well Ms. Luna," McGonagall said flatly, Mila returned with a small smile before looking at her paper.

92%. Usually people could kill for that grade, but that wasn't Mila, she always held herself up to a high standard.
Not good enough.

Remus' head had snapped towards behind him at the sound of the now familiar name. Bingo. James' gaze had followed suit, "Hey that's the girl that sat with Evans one morning right?" James whispered, Remus bit his lip squinting at the girl, trying to figure out how he would apologize for the previous night, "Yeah I guess," Remus said, "She also came up to us that same morning too don't you remember?" James shook his head trying to do a cool trick with his quill, "Honestly I don't, I was probably doing something important,"

Remus chuckled moving his ink bottle to the side as he turned back to James, "I'm pretty sure you were complaining about something stupid, Prongs," "No I was n-" James had flicked the feathery part of his quill in his ink, the ink continued to smear across the wooden desk, McGonagall sent a scowl their way, "Merlin, see, that James, was very stupid, further proving my point!" he wagged his finger as James sent a apologetic smile to the Professor, "Sorry Minnie!" he took the bottom of his shirt, wiping the ink away leaving a stain then shrugging.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose before looking back at Mila, he noticed the subtle disappointed frown on her lips as she looked down at her paper, he furrowed his brows wondering what was wrong. She finally set the paper down flipping it over, she picked her head up as the Professor began droning on before she noticed a pair of eyes staring at her, she widened her eyes before looking back down. That was right, Remus could now notice her, see her, but because everyone noticed him, people would only soon have their beady eyes on her too.

The period had ended as the hour rung. Students packed up, eager to finally end the day. James patted Remus' shoulder, "C'mon" James chewed, Remus slung his bag over his body, "I'll be right there go ahead," His friend had a quick questioned look before deciding to head off. Remus nodded to him as he went out the door with a small wave then made his way to Mila's desk in the back. She had just placed the last thing in her bag, she looked up, quirking he eyebrows at the tall guy in front of her. "So you are in the same o.w.l.s class as me," he said, "Yeah..." she responded, eyeing him, she didn't want to pry, but he was much happier than yesterday, and the cut still glowed on his cheek, Remus continued as she said nothing more, "I just wanted to apologize for-"
"Don't apologize," she interrupted, he was taken aback, no one had never told him not to apologize, he always found himself saying sorry.

"It's just," she hesitated, "You probably wanted to keep it to yourself, and I was just being a nosy git. We all have things we want to keep to ourselves, we just shouldn't have to justify why we didn't let it out," the words rang true between the two of them. Remus nodded, swaying on his feet, "Though, it still hasn't properly been cared for," Mila muttered, she grabbed her satchel, draping it across her body as she begun walking past before stopping to turn around, "Come along!"
"What- where are you going?" She walked forward, gripping the sleeve of his robe pulling him along, "We are going to take care of that gash you have," she pulled him along hallways before he asked where they were going, "To the girls restroom,"

"I'm pretty sure I am not allowed in those,"

"We're going to the broken one silly, no one will be in there,"

"Except maybe a ghost,"

"So you have been in there?"

"No- well, maybe."

Mila hummed smugly as they got to the door, she slowly opened it, as they entered she looked around the cavernous room, she went up to a mirror quickly fixing her bangs. She patted the corner of a sink, "Sit!" she demanded, "I'm not a dog," he remarked, "that's Sirius' job," she giggled at the weird comment, "Just sit will you?" "No thanks," she rolled her eyes, giving him a 'do it' look, "Why should I listen to a person I barely know?" Mila crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side, "Because it will do you some good," "I like standing" he smiled.

He ended up sitting down.

"I'll be right back you wait there!" Mila said, "Now where are you going?" Remus shook his head, "If you must know, I'm going to my dorm to grab some things to help with that!" she pointed her finger to his cheek before grabbing the door knob and speeding out.

She sprinted across hallways before quickly muttering this weeks password at the portrait hole. She ran her way upstairs into her room in their shared restroom. She opened her satchel as she squatted down opening the cabinets. Grabbing rubbing alcohol, tiny white square bandages, and another dry towels, shoving them into her bag, careful not to spill any alcohol on her papers. She rushed down stairs passing Maisie, muttering the words "Hi Maisie, bye Maisie!" as her friend looked at her in concern, about to ask her what in the world she was doing that was so important to run, but before she could say anything she had already shut the portrait door.

She did have to stop to say sorry to the Fat Lady as she was very offended, "Sorry!" she seethed, but she had to be off again as it seemed Remus had a tendency to not want to stay in that bathroom.

As she pushed the bathroom door open once again, she saw Remus' torso and head facing the mirror behind him. To her surprise he was still seated on the corner of the sink. He was fiddling with the strands of hair on his head, trying to fix his messy hair, he bit on his lip as he tried perfecting it. "Never knew guys could be so obsessed with their hair," she spoke, he turned his head around a little flushed, "Oh no I'm not obsessed, I just got bored, you should see Padfoot and his hair, we have to rip his hair brush from his hands every morning!" "Padfoot?" Mila questioned, "Oh uhm- that's just what we call Sirius, sorry," she chuckled, "That's a weird nickname but alright," she walked over to the sink beside Remus, setting her bag down as she got out the things she had just grabbed. He watched as she took one rag, setting it under the tab of the sink, damping it a bit before adding some hand soap.

"I'm not sure how hand soap is going to help with a cut," Remus commented, the girl sighed, "It's to clean the surface area of your face before I actually clean the cut," She handed him the rag, "Here clean your face," he did as told to, she waited for him to finish before he jumped down to wash off the soap before returning to his old seated position. She took the rag ringing it out over the sink before uncapping the rubbing alcohol, she dropped a bit slowly on the cloth. She held it in her hand created a point of the top with her fingers. She stood in front of Remus, "Can you tilt you head down please?" she asked, he leaned forward, tilting his head down slightly, "This might- this is going to sting," Remus pulled back before she could do anything, "I don't like things that sting," Mila rolled her eyes, "If you don't clean it, it's going to get infected and sting much worse! It's stinging right now too isn't it?" He squinted his eyes at her, she reached up to dab his face but he moved it out of the way, they kept this up back and forth for a few times, he moved his face all around so she couldn't touch him. That was before he reached behind him turning on the tab, splashing the water on her.

"Hey!" Mila yelped, he laughed at her reaction, she followed with turning on another tab splashing water back at him, "Just because I did it first doesn't mean you can do it back!" "It's called payback," she said smugly, "No, it's called you making the situation worse!" He got hit with more water droplets on his hair and face, "If I recall you're the one that can't keep your face still so I can quickly do this!" she scrunched up her nose. They ended up in a water fight until Remus' hair was drenched, Mila ultimately winning, she reached up to grab his hair, yanking his face down so she could finally clean the wound.

"You're ruining my hair!" Remus exclaimed, "You're hair is fine!" "No, your hair is fine," he pointed, "You mean this? It's a mess," His jaw dropped in disbelief as she waved her hand with the rag around, "What do you mean! Yours is somehow perfectly perfect!" she chuckled, "Ok fine, please be still," she said calmly, he watched as her face was awfully close to his, her eyes focused on dabbing the cloth on his skin, he winced a flinched a few times as she whispered her "sorry's". The atmosphere had changed a bit, there was an unspoken silence as they both held their breath. He studied her light bangs and the way her eyes were such a deep brown, he saw how she bit her lip when she was so determined and concentrated on things. She stepped away for a second before grabbing the small bandages, relived the stinging was over she taped the squares over the cut, they were small, not covering the cut at all, but she was able to explain, "They will help keep the cut together, soon it'll naturally form and stitch itself closed, without leaving a scar or a scratch," she smiled.

She finally took a deep breath as she pulled back, "I'm gonna get going now,"
"Thanks," Remus uttered, he got out of his daze as she put her things away, blinking his eyes he grazed the bandages and cut along his face, now clean and disinfected. As she was about to head out he couldn't stop himself, "Hey, Luna," she turned around, waiting for him to continue, "I uhm- well, you're kind of fun, you know, to hang out with," she chuckled lightly as his awkward way of speaking.

She nodded her head, letting him know he could keep talking, "I just, maybe we could hang out sometime, for real, not like studying or you randomly cleaning up some gash I have." she stood for a moment, kind of taken aback. He wanted to hang out with her, it was quite odd, she wasn't sure how to react, she never made a friend this way, let alone have someone reach out to her telling her they wanted and enjoyed her presence.

"Sure,"

"This technically means we're friends right?" He scratched his neck, he did want someone new to hang out with, she was someone he wanted to hang out with, she seemed to like what he liked, it was his way to branch out.

He watched a small smile grow on her face. Someone wanted to be her friend. Someone asked her.

"Yeah, I think, I think I'd like that."

A/N may, 2022

That marks chapter 4, it might take a few weeks for the next few chapters, it took me about a month to complete these chapters, some of them were rushed as I wanted to get this book out as soon as possible, but thank you for sticking around!

I have so many set in stone ideas for this book, so I know exactly what I want to do and where this is gonna go and end, and because of this, I think I can actually finish this book.

Not only is it the fact I have such a strong connection to the Harry Potter universe, and Remus Lupin is exactly the type of guy I want, it's the fact I actually enjoy writing this, and I always rush home to try to write at least a few sentences down!

See you when the next chapter comes out!

A/N december, 2022

obviously the previous a/n had aged badly for a period of time, but since then I have a rough idea of the whole story and plot for this book! Even when I had no motivation I still replayed and made up scenes in my head, so I guess that shows my half devotion to this right?

Ok so I'm about to post this, it's not January, happy new year, rah rah rainbows! (you'll get that small statement in a few chapters don't worry) Anyways letting you all know the songs linked at the top of each chapter go along with the chapter, so if you're a semi-visual person, or just want a small subliminal, then go ahead and play the song while reading! But I definitely guarantee it probably won't be long enough to last for the entire chapter read because I have a problem of making extremely long chapters but wtv!
I also made a new cover and new trailer edit so go check those out in my conversation board!!

and lastly, my new uploading schedules will be within every two weeks on either a Sunday or Wednesday! I'm starting school again tomorrow so I'll have less time to write, so this time frame will give me more time? Yeah ok cool I LOVE YOU BYEE!!

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